There has been

a lot of talk about ACL tickets the last few days. I would like to go VERY much, whether with a press pass or not I haven't decided, but I will be there regardless. Unfortunately, I will be missing out on the bulk of summer fests due to my France trip (boohoo, right?), but here is my weigh in on the line-ups for the festivals I will be missing.

Bonnaroo
Bonnaroo, I would very much like to attend you, but I swear if I see another festival where Dave Matthew Band and Kings of Leon are the headlines I will throw up. Better question: why are those two bands listed before Stevie Wonder?! Oh well, I guess he can't see unless someone tells him...
Anyway, there are some gems and some major womps in the line-up, which I guess is like most festivals. Weezer was one of the more surprising picks. They were struggling to tour with Make Believe (more in their physical state rather than ticket sales), so I can't imagine what state ol'man Rivers Cuomo will be in for such a large crowd. Overall, pretty solid, but there are so many buzz bands it's kind of irritating.

Five acts I absolutely, positively would not miss:

• The Flaming Lips performing Dark Side of the Moon <---ZZZZOOOMG listening to it now
• THE MIDDLE EAST - My mind is still blown from SXSW.
• The Avett Brothers - More importantly, I'd jump on the stage and kidnap them.
• Jeff Beck - Tickets to see him in Austin were in the hundreds of dollars toward the end, and now he's a blip way down on the line-up list? Further proof that Austinites know their music.
  
• Local Natives - SO. DAMN. GOOD.

Five acts I suggest you avoid like the plague:

• Weezer - Sorry, guys. It's even past novelty at this point.
• Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers - Seriously?
• OK Go - That new music video is SWEET, though. I just imagine it would be really boring.
• Dawes - I believe my assessment for their SXSW performance was "this sounds like John Mellencamp...except really boring. And not good. At all." <-maybz a bit more eloquent
• Neon Indian - Okay, avoiding like the plague may be harsh. You should check it out if you like it, but it takes a pretty dynamic electronic guy to make that show interesting. I wasn't impressed, but the crowd was also very lucid.

Sasquatch!

I think Sasquatch! is cool for several reasons. A) It has punctuation in its name. B) The Gorge is a PERFECT place to have a concert. You could probably see from ANYWHERE, where as that flat ground of Zilker are very limiting. C) They consistently have killer line-ups without the cheesy buzz bands or burned-out old rockers.
I even like the way they present the bands on their website - each with their own little blurb and There are a few overlaps between the big music festivals for the really good acts, but Sasquatch! takes the cream of the crop from the others and adds PAVEMENT to their repertoire. Yes. Pavement. Jaws, get ready to drop.

People I would sell internal organs to see:

• PAVEMENT - I can't believe they are doing a major festival that close to their reunion!
• Ween - They are still way too cool for me to handle.
• Public Enemy - WIN for the oldschoolhipsterfriendly rap pick.
• Tallest Man on Earth - Sweden's Bob Dylan? Yes, please. Note: He is playing in Austin on May 2nd. I'm already going and YOU SHOULD TOO. Tickets are only $10.
• The Mountain Goats - I feel like I haven't seen them out and about much, of late. The Mountain Goats, so I've heard, put on a crazy good live show.
  

When it's time to wait in Port-O-Potty lines:

• Passion Pit - I love Passion Pit, okay? Really, I do. But their live show makes me want to weep. It's BAD.
• MGMT - Kind of in the same boat with Passion Pit. Good album, bad live show. Also, their newest release has really thrown everyone for a loop, and I'm not sure how to feel about it yet.
• Nada Surf - Live, they're mediocre at best. I actually went to one of their shows for their opening act and left a few minutes into their set. Granted, I'm not really a fan of their recorded stuff.

Honestly, I can't think of two more than aren't overlaps of the last bad ones. Also, the list of people not to miss was VERY hard to keep to five. Seriously, check out the line-up.


To be continued...

ee cummings, yo

Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because
when you're hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you're flush pride keeps

you from the pawn shops and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down

on it
and because you are
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity

i hate you
-ee cummings





New poem of mine coming soon.
Only slightly better than this one.

These are a few of my favorite things (part 2)

5. Taking pictures
I've been into photography lately. Ever since SXSW and my pseudo photography skills, I've been kind of addicted. I don't know shit about photography, but I've been doing a lot of online research and testing with my borrowed Canon Rebel. Soon sweet Chelsey Kilzer and I are making a trip to Laguna Gloria for a photo shoot. Anyone want their picture taken?

4.


3. Being published
No, I haven't gotten over it. Probably never will. There is nothing like a byline to make my entire day. I'm not quite at the giddy level where I was in my first semester (aka I don't obnoxiously post everything on Facebook), but I'm still pretty close. I surely hope these are things I will experience for the rest of my life, the thrill and being published, that is.
SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION: You can download the latest issue of Performer, the magazine I intern for, here. After the .pdf downloads, if you don't feel like reading the rest you can just search my name for the best parts. :)

2. Letters
I don't get them very often, but I've stockpiled each one that I've gotten in college. There is something so nice about someone's handwriting. It doesn't matter if it's on paper or a greeting card, if the note is short or long, I save it. I want to write letters from France (in French) to everyone this summer, and maybe they will save them and think it is as cool as I do. Most likely they will not.

1.

What makes you happy?

These are a few of my favorite things (part 1)

Because I have been very disconnected of late and because I have had a major writer's block, I assigned myself the task of making a list of ten things that make me happy.

10. Stress shopping
I don't care if this is just ridiculously girly. I can't remember the last time I just shopped to shop. It's always right before/after a test, on a deadline, during particularly bad days. And you know what? I like it. I like buying things to make myself feel better because it WORKS.

9. Sugar Mama's
We haven't been lately, but Griffin and I visit this tiny shop enough for the hipster-baker guy that is constantly working the counter to recognize us when we run into him at Waterloo. I think if you don't like this place you either didn't have a childhood or don't have a soul. It's family owned, it's blue and red on the inside, they sell aprons, and they make seriously tasty cupcakes. I still refuse to name a favorite because I haven't actually cycled through their entire cupcake collection, but I couldn't even pick from the ones I've had thus far.


8. Old books
I just brought Dad's old French textbook back to school with me. It had "HI" written in the front of it in this silly, swirly script, and I absolutely adore it. It makes me want to take notes in my books and buy editions with interesting covers. One of my very favorite old books is the double edition Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass that my Granddad gave me. He took almost illegible notes in the margins.

7. Fresh sheets
and the way my car rides after going from no gas to a full tank are probably the best sensory feelings that I can think of. I think I first started noticing how good it was after this girl told me that our dead skin cells add 10 extra pounds to sheets. Aside from that little tidbit being dispelled in the rinse cycle, I love the way they smell and that soft quality they have every time they come out of the dryer.

6. Running
I had to put this lower on the list because, currently, running is the reason my left ankle is twice the size of the other, and my knee, instep, and outside of my foot are purpled with bruises. Regardless, sometimes I can think of nothing better than running with music blasting in my ears. I love the individualism involved with it. I love pushing myself further than I thought I could go. The satisfaction I get from meeting a mileage goal is pretty up there achievement wise.



One through five to come later. I'm going to play frisbee golf with Andrew, Ryan and Sam. Our team name? Four Man Wolf Pack. WIN.

Vegging

I'm thinking of picking up vegetarianism after this weekend. Only for the 10k, though, which I suppose isn't really being a vegetarian since it isn't for moral reasons (oh, how I wish I had the strength for that...). Every time I run after eating meat or something heavy I feel horrible. Plus, I've heard it's an excellent detox.
My running is going okay. I keep dropping the schedule, which puts me behind on the longer runs, but for these last four weeks before the race I'm going to stick to it heavily. My schedule isn't really conducive to workouts or runs, though, which is probably why I dropped running in the first place.

I'm going to listen to the Final Countdown on loop during the race.